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1 (855) 894-5658
November 2022
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ERICSHOUSE
November Newsletter
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Dear EricsHouse Community,
Welcome to November 2022! We are here to surround loss survivors with our support. The Holidays can bring up a host of emotions. May this Holiday season be a time to honor your feelings, set boundaries, and find ways to pay homage to your beautiful loved ones.
-EricsHouse
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A Letter From Our Founder-
Marianne Gouveia
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Another Great Event!
On October 8th, in honor of World Mental Health month, we held one of our virtual fundraisers which once again was a huge success thanks to many of you who have generously supported our mission. At EricsHouse, we support families bereaved by alcohol, drugs, or suicide, and because of your support, we can provide hope, healing, and new beginnings for those living in the aftermath of these devastating losses. Because of you, we can be present, to lend a compassionate ear, and to walk-alongside our loss survivors so they don’t have to journey alone.
Our goals are to educate families about the complexities of their grief and to support them regardless of race, creed, or financial ability. We offer one-on-one grief companioning, multiple support groups, and special events throughout the year so that everyone, regardless of where they are in the journey, has access to support to help them heal.
I would like to thank the people who made our event a success:
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Mathew Blades and Dr. David Leicken from the “Learn from People Who Lived It Podcast,” an amazing podcast that follows brave souls who have lived through unimaginable circumstances and still found a way to heal. Check out their podcast at Learn From People Who Lived It and listen to my interview about EricsHouse on October 3rd, 2022.
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Billy Harfosh from IHeart Radio 99.9 KEZ radio and host of “Show up Arizona with Billy Harfosh” podcast. Billy has been a huge supporter of EricsHouse and we are grateful to have him on our team. You can check out Billy’s work at Show Up Arizona with Billy Harfosh.
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Beth McDonald from IHeart Radio 99.9 KEZ who is the creator of the EricsHouse “Happy Heart-a-Rita” , our signature cocktail that brings a smile to everyone’s eyes! Beth is a morning show host at Beth and Friends. She is fun-loving and one of the most influential women in media. Follow Beth on Instagram at bethmcdonald999 and catch her morning show at Beth and Friends. Thank you, Beth!
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Christina Ivanhoe, Founder of Golden Heart Wellness and Sanjeev Javia, founder of PROZE Performance Nutrition. Christina is a loss survivor and has created an amazing service that includes many different solutions to staying healthy. You can learn more at Golden Heart Wellness. You can find more about “Jeevers'' great PROZE products at www.proze.com.
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Andrew Ecker and Monica Patton, Founders of Drumming Sounds. They demonstrate drumming and discuss “recreational music” to heal trauma. See the link in this newsletter to listen to the entire segment from our program. They have contributed their time and treasure to EricsHouse, and they brought loads of fun to our day. Learn more at Drumming Sounds.
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Barbara Brown of Together AZ shares essential resources and valued experience. Babara’s vision of providing assistance and information to the still suffering alcoholic, drug addict and mentally ill shines stronger today than ever. The goal is to help as many people as possible recover from substance abuse addiction and other behavioral health issues. Learn more at togetheraz.com/about/
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My amazing son, Robert Gouveia, host of the popular legal analysis podcast “Watching the Watchers”. Rob is such a big part of our event and as always lends his valuable support as our emcee and technical guru! SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL HIS VIEWERS AT WATCHING THE WATCHERS. WE LOVE YOU!! You can listen to Rob at www.youtube.com/c/RobertGouveiaEsq
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Melinda Vail – our friend and healer who is always there to support us and our clients. She is truly a good friend and supporter who brings lots of fun and laughter to our lives. We love you, Melinda! For more information visit, melindavail.com/
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Jan D’Atri brings a fresh and fun perspective on cooking! With years of experience, she is an excellent teacher who knows how to whip up some tasty treats. Sweet Basil Cooking School and Jan were kind enough to host a Cooking for Comfort Class for EricsHouse members. They also donated a cooking class. We are so grateful for their support. For more information about Jan and her fabulous recipes visit, jandatri.com/. Learn more about Sweet Basil at sweetbasilgourmet.com/.
Last but certain not least - -the people who support and endorse the work we do along with a team of amazing staff and volunteers – Dr. Alan Wolfelt, Madison, Bailee, Kim, Patty, Greg, and everyone who made this event successful. Thanks to each of you.
Please do reach out if you know anyone who could use our support during the upcoming holiday season. We are available to help!
Much love and admiration to our 2022 fundraising team.
Marianne Gouveia
Co-founder and Chairman
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THANK YOU! Our fundraiser was truly amazing. EricsHouse is so thankful for the generosity of the community. Fundraisers allow us to continue providing healing programs to support loss survivors all throughout the year.
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Check out one of our AMAZING live segments from our fundraiser!
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The First Touchstone by Greg Eckerman
We were discussing Touchstone 1 (Open to the Presence of Your Loss) in our Men’s Group last week and it opened some questions for me.
First, what is a touchstone? Though I’ve read Dr Wolfelt’s writings on the 10 Touchstones for Healing in Grief, I guess I always treated touchstone as synonymous with milestone – it’s not. Originally (as in for thousands of years), a touchstone was a smooth grained stone used to assay the purity of precious metals – often gold. You’d rub the gold on the touchstone and compare the mark to a mark made by a known sample of gold. More recently, the term touchstone is used as a metaphor for a standard or benchmark . . . a measure of quality or purity.
In Understanding Your Grief, Dr Wolfelt encourages us in writing about the first touchstone to embrace or befriend our pain. That feels unnatural – we naturally avoid pain, we don’t open ourselves up to it. More than that, he says it’s about honoring our pain – recognizing the value of it . . . respecting it. We’ve all learned firsthand that avoiding the pain of our grief doesn’t work. Grief waits. Yet it is still hard to assign the concepts quality or purity to pain.
What we must learn to honor is the love behind the pain. The love that our beloved brought into our lives. That’s pure. It is the essence of quality. When we truly open ourselves to the conjoined relationship between love and the pain of loss, we learn to be present to our pain.
The presence of our loss is the touchstone. The purity of our love is the standard for quality in our lives. When we set our intention to heal, we commit to seek out that gold standard. We commit to live fully, having integrated our losses, and opening our hearts – fully aware of the vulnerability that goes with it.
How can we open to the presence of our loss, particularly in this holiday season? I think the essence of being present to our losses (and pain) is remembering. Surround ourselves with true companions on this journey. Tell the stories of our loved ones. But do it carefully, mindful of the depth and power of the triggers we routinely encounter during the holidays. How can we open to the presence of our loss, particularly in this holiday season? I think the essence of being present to our losses (and pain) is remembering. Surround ourselves with true companions on this journey. Tell the stories of our loved ones. But do it carefully, mindful of the depth and power of the triggers we routinely encounter during the holidays.
Be patient and kind to yourselves.
With love and gratitude,
Greg Eckerman
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We would like to welcome Kim Hamilton as
our newest Board Member!
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Kim Hamilton volunteers her time as a provider and group facilitator. EricsHouse is so appreciative of her dedication, compassion, and expertise. Kim is joining the EricsHouse Board as our Treasurer!
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Join us for Caro Brookings’ upcoming interview series. She has brought together 20+ top experts, authors and support providers from the suicide grief and loss space who will share how YOU can get through the holidays with peace and joy, whilst remembering and honoring your loved one.
I am so grateful to be part of this FREE 5-day interview series, and I can’t wait to share my wisdom with you!
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International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day is an event in which survivors of suicide loss come together to find connection, understanding, and hope through their shared experience. This year, International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day is Saturday, November 19, 2022
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EricsHouse is proud to be a part of this global celebration of giving that unleashes the power of people to transform their communities and the world. We invite you and your friends to support EricsHouse during this special day.
EricsHouse has big aspirations to help more individuals who are hurt from the traumatic loss of someone they love – brother, sister, spouse, partner, parent, or friend. This coming year, our determination is to add three grief companions to our staff so we can serve the growing number of people who need a safe space to heal.
On Giving Tuesday, please consider being a partner with EricsHouse to help others. Tell the story of EricsHouse to another person. Contribute a financial gift to EricsHouse. No matter how small or large, every act of generosity counts.
Mark your calendars for November 29. Stay tuned for more details about EricsHouse and Giving Tuesday. Follow EricsHouse on Facebook and Instagram for exciting updates and stories. Be a part of this incredible movement that is engaging millions of people around the globe. We are all interconnected and we can all make a difference.
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Life after suicide loss requires learning to be open to the presence of your pain, at least if you want to begin down the path of healing. But, what does that mean?
Marianne & Melissa will talk about...
- How we work through our 'grief bursts'
- What is "Catholic Fear" and how to move past it
- How the healing can begin after the shock, numbness & isolation...and then continue from there
- Grief inside a marriage ... and So much more!
- Eric's House and its vision "...that no person who is bereaved by suicide or substance abuse will suffer these devastating losses alone."
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The Healing Power of
Breathwork Part Two-
An introduction to
diaphragmatic breathing
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In this segment Dr. Kathleen Rickard and Greg Eckerman discuss a simplified approach to optimizing breathwork. Four part breathing is a straight forward and effective approach to help calm your mind and body.
Four Part Breathing Technique:
1) You may keep your eyes open or close them. Take a deep breath while counting for four seconds. Breath through your nose with your shoulders down and your belly out.
2) Hold the breath for four seconds.
3) Slowly exhale for four seconds.
4) Repeat steps one through three as many times as you would like.
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Grief is hard to navigate no matter what time of the year it is. The Holidays can be even more difficult. After suddenly losing a loved one the vision and ideas one has for the future completely change. Often times loss survivors experience intense emotions. Grief can affect the mind, body and soul.
Join us via Zoom for healing breathwork to connect with others and breathe through any feelings you may experiencing. Breathwork is a powerful tool to help with blood pressure, heart rate, immune system, emotional calm, sleep, memory, and well being.
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EricsHouse Tree of Life - A Way to Memorialize Your Loved Ones
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The Tree of Life is a custom art installation, created by local artists to help us remember our loved ones. This unique exhibit is displayed in the center of the EricsHouse facility on a 7′ x 11′ birch panel.
Our Tree of Life holds the names of people lost to suicide and substance abuse in the leaves on the tree. When you donate $100 in the name of your lost loved one, a personalized leaf will be placed on the tree as a lasting memorial. Only donations through the Tree of Life campaign will receive a leaf. Leaves may also be purchased for friends and family as a gift in their loved one’s honor.
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EricsHouse Inc.
1 (855) 894-5658
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